Awaluddin Halirin Kaimuddin : “I am an Indonesian PhD student from the University of Brest, France, working on marine fish species distribution modeling using GIS technique. In the need of sea salinity data as one of the limiting factor of fish distribution, I applied for the SMOS training course held by ESA. Thanks God that I was accepted as one of the lucky participant for one week intensive course. I really enjoyed the teaching method with full dedication and support from the teachers/organizers. In addition, the participants came from different background and from almost all around the world: Europe, Asia, North America, even from New Zealand allowing sharing experience and discussion not only about the research but also about different social working condition and even cultural subject. It was such a wonderful and rich experience that I definitely recommend and promote the course to all of my friends”
Alexander Schwertheim: I came to the ESA training course on behalf of Bodeker Scientific in New Zealand. We are currently assessing the feasibility of assimilating soil moisture data over New Zealand in order to help the agricultural sector to conserve water. Given that our project is in its early stages, we did not yet know which of the SMOS products we would use. The SMOS training course provided me with enough information on all the products, to understand the differences and benefits of each. Having completed the course I am confident I have the skills to use whichever SMOS product I require.Victoria Walker: I am a graduate student at Iowa State University and I came to the training course to learn the details of the L2 soil moisture retrieval algorithm. I fully enjoyed the time I spent here making new connections and expanding my knowledge of SMOS.Lange Martin: Dear Trainings course organizers and lecturers, thanks a lot for the invitation to the SMOS training course. I enjoyed it very much to attend this intense course with an internationality which I never experienced in such a small kind group of around 20+x people from New Zealand over Asia, Africa, North America to Scandinavia (sorry for those I didn’t mention). I am Martin Lange working at the German weather service in the field of land data assimilation. As I took the trainings course as a starting point for my work in assimilation of SMOS data in soil moisture analysis it was very helpful to get an overall overview about the mission and an introduction to the existing products with practical applications and presentations what has been achieved already. Although I didn’t know very much about the retrieval algorithms so far, I feel that I am now prepared to do the next steps. Thanks to Yann Kerr, Susanne Mecklenburg who did all the things behind the scenes which are necessary to make such an event being successful, and the whole team for the individual assistance. Keep it up!Xu YUAN: I am a Chinese PhD student from University of Twente, Netherland. My subject during PhD period is about the relationship between sea surface salinity and the Indian summer monsoon. From the SMOS training course, I learned a lot about the president situations of sea surface salinity which is very helpful with my study. The teachers are very patient to teach us the knowledge and to solve our problems. I really enjoy the time during this SMOS training course.Zenaida Chitu: I am researcher at the National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management, Romania working on hillslope hydrology for analyzing the hydro-meteorological conditions which trigger landslides in Sub-carpathians area, Romania. As soil moisture represent a key parameter for definition of the initial state of the catchments, I applied for SMOS training course in order to extend my approach over large areas in Romania. The SMOS training course was the best way to learn about how to access, to check the data quality and how to use the retrieval processors for obtaining soil moisture satellite products. The skills that I gained through this training course will help me to use SMOS products in my actual research. I really enjoined the course and I highly recommend it.Karthikeyan Lanka: I am a PhD student from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. I feel that I have attended the training program at right time in my academics. The training program has been seamlessly organized and the best part is that I could directly interact with trainers who were directly involved in development of products. They were courteous enough to come and visit my poster and involve in discussion on what I have been doing in PhD. I have received some valuable comments which are critical for my research. I am happy that I could establish contact with some great scientists as well as students. Thanks for organizing such a program and I request you to keep continuing it in future.Friedrich Richter: “After finishing my studies in meteorology, I started my training at ESA in the field of remote sensing of the cryosphere. My project’s goal is to investigate sea ice thicknesses derived by passive microwave from SMOS and make further implications on the atmospheric response. The SMOS workshop provided me perfect knowledge to start my investigations on this topic, especially in terms of a comprehensive understanding of variety of SMOS products from the low L1 measurements to high complex L4 data products.”Hakki Baltaci: I am a PhD student from Istanbul Technical University together with full time working in Meteorology Service,of Istanbul,Turkey. Although topics of the training were hard for me to understand in a week:), the programme was well prepared by including algorithms, and scientific applications. I have learned so many things about the soil moisture data and its applications that I will implement in my later studies. Thanks for scientific and organizing committee for their hospitality and supports.Houda SAIRI , I am a PhD student from Hassan II University – Casablanca ( Morocco ) , in my studies I’m trying to integrate the parameter of soil moisture in hydrological modeling and flood forecasting so it’s very interesting for me to know how to manipulate SMOS data in the right way by the right method/tool . For me, this training course gave me a push to learn and also to create a SM scientific network that of course will help me in the future. Thanks for all of scientific and organization committee for their efforts.This post was prepared by Awaluddin Kaimuddin